Target's breach: Swiped cards and golden parachutes

Now that Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel is relinquishing the top seat at retailer Target, security and hacking blog Krebs on Security has a few numbers that tell a lot about the infamous data breach that compromised credit cards and personal information belonging to tens of millions of its customers.

For instance, the crooks pilfered 40 million debit and credit cards and nabbed personal information such as addresses and phone numbers belonging to 70 million people. Target, which had no chief security officer at the time, scrambled to restore order in the wake of the theft. It hurt: Target's fourth-quarter profit plummeted 46 percent over the year before, partly because of related expenses.

In spite of the massive size of the breach, fewer than 3 million cards were likely sold on the black market and successfully used for fraud. The estimated haul came in at around $53.7 million total, just shy of the $55 million Gregg Steinhafel is expected to take home when he leaves the company this year.